"I mean, the notion isn't that I'm taking the Queen head-on in a contest of wills and powers, the notion is that I cheated and got her signed agreement to lose to me before the contest started. I don't have to hold hypothetical Carissa better than the Queen could, I just have to hold her so she can't get back to the Queen."
"But actually our story doesn't get this far! The Queen of Cheliax mysteriously refuses to sign off on this absolutely and totally reasonable request I am making of her, despite Contessa Lrilatha and all of her other advisors telling her how absolutely and totally reasonable it is. I break off negotiations and inform you that the Queen of Cheliax is a living manifestation of the same phenomenon that sent Pilar to Elysium, a belief further updated when it turns out that Asmodia started being able to see people's thoughts after she came back from Hell, and now we all have no choice but to flee back to our new project home. I tell you that you are firmly forbidden from ever again meeting with the Queen of Cheliax, no matter how hot she is or how much your thoughts turn to all the scary things she could do to you, because everybody has a job to do and I don't want any more plot complications we can possibly delay or avoid."